Archive for » December, 2007 «

12
Dec
Celebrate Blogging
Barbara Swafford

Christmas is my favorite time of the year. I spend weeks preparing.

I’m a nut for Christmas lights. I put tons of lights outside, and add pieces of yard decor. When darkness comes, I flip the switch, and the whole yard lights up. It’s beautiful.

I also love to wrap gifts, so I find pretty paper after Christmas in which I wrap gifts for the following year. I match the ribbons and bows to the paper, and add a personalized card to each gift.

I bake and share goodies with the neighbors, friends and family. There’s nothing more “homey” than the smell of freshly baked cookies and cakes.

Christmas music always gets me in the spirit. I love to play it when I decorate the tree. Many of our ornaments “tell a story”, and between reminiscing and listening to Christmas music, I am reminded of the true meaning of Christmas.

Unfortunately, with my overloaded schedule at this time of the year, it’s not always easy finding time to post to my blogs.

However, with this being the first Christmas I have a blog, I’m beginning to see some similarities.

Setting up a blog, and blogging, could be compared to decorating for the holidays.

First of all, you may spend weeks in preparation for a blog, as you would for the Christmas season.

You first think of your lights. Plugging them in, as your would, put a blog online. Your blog and lights shine brightly for all to see and admire.

Christmas music is beautiful to listen to, as are the comments you receive, are to read.

Cookies and candy are handmade, just as posts are written.

Similar to friends and family coming to visit for the holidays, we also invite those in blogosphere, to come and visit our blog.

We keep an eye on our holiday budget, just as we watch our stats.

Christmas cards get sent to friends, just as we post comments on the blogs of our cyberspace friends.

Presents get wrapped in pretty paper. Blogs are “dressed up” in their themes

As we add bows to presents, we add plugins, addons, and widgets to blogs.

As you begin to celebrate the true meaning of Christmas, sit back and remember why you started blogging.

It’s time to celebrate!

With your blog, you are giving others, a “present” they can “unwrap”, one post at a time.

Cheers!

Category: Archives, Blogging, Life  Tags: ,  6 Comments
10
Dec
Baby Stepping Into Blogosphere
Barbara Swafford

If I look back at some of my early posts, I laugh. I made up goofy definitions for some of the blogging terminology I was learning. In several posts, I was “beating my head against the wall” (I did that a lot back then), and others had obvious typos.

Three months into blogging, I wrote:

When I first started blogging, I felt overwhelmed by everything I was reading. My head spun for weeks, and the learning curve was more like a switchback road going through a mountain pass. With every site I visited, I got more information, however, the more I read, the more conflicting the information became.

I began to wonder where blogging would lead. Now I realize, those old posts remind me where I came from, and how both my blog and I have changed.

Today’s Lesson

Having a blog for any length of time, is like watching a child grow out of infancy.

If you give it lots of positive attention, it begins to respond accordingly. But, if you aren’t giving your blog the attention it needs, soon it begins losing it’s popularity. You begin to lose interest, and even the search engines don’t want to “play” anymore.

As bloggers, most of us find that our blogging/writing style also changes over time. Our blogs begin to take on a personality of their own. We may look at some of our older posts and ask our selves “What were we thinking?”

For me, my blog has transformed into a site, I would have never envisioned.

I had expected my blog to be more “ramblings” of what I was learning, but then it developed a more structured, “lesson/assignment” format.

Old posts show us where we were in the infancy of blogging. As weeks and months (and years) go by, we will always have those old posts to revert back to, as we would reread an entry in a journal.

A blog takes us on a journey. Like baby steps, our old posts remind us how far we have come.

Today’s Assignment

Take time to review some of your earliest posts.

Do you see how your blogging/writing style has changed?

How are the dynamics of your blog changing?

Are you still enjoying the journey?

Category: Archives, Blogging Lessons, Posting  Tags: ,  2 Comments
06
Dec
Google AdSense Ads – Do Less Mean More
Barbara Swafford

Today’s Lesson

Two months ago, I started an experiment with Google AdSense, “ads for content”, ads.

As I stated in that post,

From this site, I have removed my Google Ads for Content, (which I had in the sidebar). Months ago, I read ( and I don’t know if this is true), that if you have more than one site, and they are all using Google Ads for Content, if one site’s ads are “lower paging ads”, they can decrease your payout for all of your sites.

This makes sense, as no matter how many sites you have, you only have one Google account. So, based on “averages”, that would compute.

So, like I said, for two months, I had no Google AdSense, “ads for content”, on this blog (as I believe, “blog” ads are probably low paying).

I watched to see if my EPC (earnings per click) for my OM blog, would increase.

You are probably wondering too.

They did not.

With that being said, although based on averages, it would/could compute, removing the ads for content from this blog, made no difference.

Having watched the “payouts”, it appears the amount for Google’s EPC, is partly based on the topic (keywords) of your post, and where your topic falls into the “highest paying keyword” categories. Page rank may also factor in, however, learning all there is about Google’s payout method, for “ads for content”, apparently is a highly guarded secret.

Today’s Assignment

Have you ever experimented with your Google AdSense, and gotten better results?

Have you noticed how your “ads for content” change, based on your topics?

Do you see your earnings increase/decrease, when you write about different subjects (keywords)?

Category: Advertising, Archives, Blogging Language, Making Money  Tags: , , , ,  Comments off
05
Dec
Help For New Bloggers With Low Traffic
Barbara Swafford

Are you a new blogger, or as some of you call yourselves, “newbie blogger”, “nube”, “novice blogger”, “infant blogger, etc? Are you disheartened by the low visitor counts your blog is experiencing? Are you looking for help?

When you hit the “publish” button, do you wonder if your post actually went into cyberspace or blogosphere?

You may have searched for your posts online, but can’t find them.

You may feel that, even though you are publishing posts on a regular basis, no one is reading them.

You check your visitor statistics, and begin to believe, you and your best friend, are the only ones visiting your blog.

You may begin to wonder, if blogging is all it’s cracked up to be.

Blogging, or having a blog, for some, will end up being another, “been there, done that”, kind of experience.

For others, it will be a life changing event.

Today’s Lesson

If you are feel you are a new die hard blogger, I’m here to give you some encouragement.

Most important, you must realize, getting your blog found, takes time.

In cyberspace, which is filled with millions of blogs, each blog is like a tadpole in the ocean.

Now, I know that doesn’t sound very encouraging, but the world is also filled with hundreds of millions of people, who are doing searches, on their computers.

According to Search Engine Watch.com, in September of 2007, there were 9.4 billion searches performed.

When I checked Technorati’s website, they are tracking 112.8 million blogs.

So…if there were 9.4 billion searches, and 112.8 million blogs, there’s hope for every blog to be found.

Technorati also reported, that 175,000 new blogs go online daily. Amazing.

I have yet to read a report of how many blogs are discontinued or are sitting dormant, but I would imagine, that number is also high.

Before I started blogging, I didn’t search for these numbers.

Call me naive, or call me stupid. I just knew, I wanted a blog, and wanted to “share”.

I didn’t give much thought to how, or if, my blog would be found. I just assumed, in time, it would be discovered.

I didn’t understand SEO (search engine optimization), social bookmarking sites, blog carnivals, or what ‘free articles” were.

In fact, there was a lot I didn’t, and still don’t, understand. I continue to learn something new everyday, as blogging is constantly changing.

For those of us who blog, because we love to share, blogging is not difficult.

Blogging almost becomes an obsession. It’s that part of your day, you look forward to.

If you don’t publish a post, or visit other blogs, your may feel your day isn’t complete.

Blogging is also a great outlet. It could be compared to therapy. We are “talking” to our imaginary audience.

In the process of blogging our thoughts, we may also hope that others are learning from our experiences (good or bad). Because we care, we don’t want others to repeat the same mistakes we made.

We hope that maybe we will change, even one person’s life.

Can you put a price on that?

Today’s Assignment

Probably more important than having your blog found, is to ask yourself: “Why am I blogging?”

Did you read that you can make tons of money?

Or are you filled with knowledge, you want to share with the world? For free?

If you have found that blogging is a passion for you, don’t get disheartened.

Just keep posting. Keep sharing your knowledge. Keep going.

Remember…., even the most successful blogs, began with one visitor.

Visitors will find your blog, too. It just takes time.

In the meantime, make time to learn about SEO, keywords and keywords density, and other traffic building techniques such as submitting your posts to social bookmarking sites, blog carnivals, free online article sites, directories, etc.

It’s also important to visit other blogs. Leave a comment. Get your name out there.

Are you a new blogger? Leave me a comment. I will be more than happy to visit your site.

If you have been blogging for awhile now, feel free to share what you have learned, with the new bloggers who are reading this post.

Happy Blogging! :)

Category: Archives, Blogging Lessons, Increase Traffic  Tags: , , ,  7 Comments
04
Dec
How To Create An Affiliate Text Link Ad
Barbara Swafford

If you have a blog, and have signed up for affiliate ads, through such services as Commission Junction or LinkShare.com, you know you have the choice to insert banner/image ads, text link ads, or keyword link ads.

Today’s Lesson

Adding banner or picture ads of different sizes, is a matter of copying and pasting the HTML code onto your blog page/post.

To insert a text link ad, the process is similar

Begin by typing the content for your post.

When you get to the place where you want to insert a text link ad, stop typing.

Go to your affiliate network’s website. Depending on which affiliate network you are using, you will have the option of “Banners/Images”, “Text Link”, or “Textual/E-Mail”

Click on “Text Link” or “Textual/E-Mail”.

You will see a list of link choices.

Often it will be a short sentence, or a partial sentence. Sometimes it will be the name of the company.

Choose which “link” you want to insert.

Copy the HTML code, and paste it into your post.

If you choose a sentence, or partial sentence, your post content should compliment the “ad copy”.

Do not add a “link”, as that is already included in the text link HTML code.

After adding the HTML code, continue typing your blog post.

Check to see if you need to add any spaces.

Finish your post, and edit as necessary, before publishing.

Now, just sit back and wait for the money to come rolling in. :)

Adding a text link ad is pretty simple, however, if you have never done it before, it can also be intimidating.

The easiest way I have found work with inserting ads, is by using a split screen. I have my blog on one half, and the affiliate network’s site on the other half. To accomplish this, I use the Firefox Split Browser, which can be downloaded for free, here:

Today’s Assignment

If you are using an affiliate service such as Link Share or Commission Junction, experiment with adding a text link ad to a post.

If you use affiliate ads, do you find they are working for you?

Do you currently use text link ads in your posts?

What do you think works better, banner/image ads or text link ads?

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Category: Advertising, Blogging Lessons, Linking, Making Money  Tags:  5 Comments
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